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The camel coat: A fashion icon and fall’s coveted cover-up

Designers sent out the first signal of a major trend by sending tawny-coloured coats marching down runways at fall 2010 presentations. From capes to peacoats to masculine double breasted styles, the camel-coloured topper was the champion of the catwalks.

When the hefty September issues of fashion magazines hit newsstands this year, the call was loud and clear: Judging from must-have lists and fashion ads, the camel coat is back, and it’s the one must-have item for fall.

The coats are traditionally favoured by the fair-haired set, but this fall, hues range from light honey to darker caramel. They’re available at a variety of price points, too; some come with four-figure price tags, but a quick picker-upper costs under a hundred bucks.

“It’s a new neutral and is easy to blend into your wardrobe,” says Cristelle Basmaji, director of marketing and communications at Jacob. The Montreal-based chain is selling two styles of the coat this fall: a cape and a single-breasted overcoat.

Like the little black dress, the camel coat is a fashion icon. First worn by polo players in the early 1900s to keep warm between games and styled like a dressing gown, the coat — then made with real camel hair — moved in and out of style. In the 1950s, it became popular on preppy campuses.

It attained cinematic glory in the 1970s tear-jerker Love Story. Ali MacGraw’s now-famous coat, with its wide lapels and patch pockets, inspired many fashion insiders, who tout this particular style as the ultimate classic.

The topper last made significant inroads into the fashion landscape in the 1990s, at the end of a recession and minimalist movement, when newly minted style icon Carolyn Bessette Kennedy struck a cord with a fascinated public in her camel coat. (Her mother-in-law, Jackie Kennedy, wore a camel coat to husband John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration in 1961.)

Perhaps because the times are similar — recession, minimalism — the simple camel coat is once again a coveted cover-up.

For Toronto designer Sunny Fong, nostalgia influenced his decision to create a fur-trimmed coat for his Vawk label this fall.

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“My mother had a coat like this in the ’70s,” he says. “It was fur-trimmed and very Mary Tyler Moore. I wanted to do a new version.”

He adds, “The colour is not heavy and dark. It’s not sombre. It lightens the mood. It reminds me of good times.”

The pair behind Toronto label Smythe, Andrea Lenczner and Christie Smythe, featured camel coats in their fall collection, too. One style, a simple wrap coat, is made of camel hair.

“True camel hair is not easy to find and is really expensive,” says Christie Smythe. “But it makes it more special.”

“With so much disposable fashion, it’s refreshing to start investing in your closet again,” she says.

That should be a consideration when it comes to buying a camel coat this season: You don’t have to opt for camel hair, but a well-made, timeless style will be everlasting.

Mitropoulos agrees. “It’s an investment. It’s quiet luxury. There is nothing bold, pretentious or ostentatious about it,” he says. “Right now in fashion everything is being cleaned up. We needed that now.”

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